Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Bayou Bend Collection 1 Westcott Street Houston Texas 77007 Accession Number: B.77.46
Date:
Ca. 1830-1840
Notes:
"American decorative arts and paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection," Houston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1998, no. P42.
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, "A Permanent Legacy: 150 Works from the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston," New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1989, pg. 268.
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, "A Guide to the Collection," 1981, pg. 95.
Summary:
Adapted from Benjamin West's painting of the same subject, Hicks has reversed the placement of the foreground figures and eliminated the Delaware River, substituting Penn's Landing on Dock Street instead. Here William Penn stands in the middle of the canvas, just in front of a group of colonists, and facing a group of Native Americans. To Penn's left, stands a colonist unfurling the treaty. This composition differs from Hicks' other Treaty paintings in several details, one of which is the English servant who kneels in front holding a tray of Jew's harps, items known to have been brought by Penn to the New World.
